Cricket

Uncertainty still looms large over Misbah-ul-Haq's tour to New Zealand after the Pakistan Cricket Board said it would wait till the first Test to decide whether to send the senior batsman there as Younus Khan's replacement. Pakistan captain for the series Mohammad Yousuf wanted Misbah to boost the team's batting department after regular skipper Younus' opted out of the three Test series for a break. However, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ejaz Butt and chief selector Iqbal Qasim yesterday ...  

n undefeated century from Alex Blackwell has seen the NSW Breakers comprehensively defeat the ACT Meteors by eight wickets in the WNCL one-day match at Canberra's Manuka Oval on Saturday. Chasing 217 to win, the Breakers reached their target in the 34th over, easily securing one vital bonus point. Blackwell was at her aggressive best today, her 121 coming off 107 balls and including 14 fours and one six.  

The VicSpirit continued its domination over the Queensland Fire with a bonus-point victory in the one-day Women's National Cricket League match at the Junction Oval on Saturday afternoon. After a convincing win in the Women's Twenty20 match on Friday, a disciplined bowling performance from the Spirit restricted Queensland to 151 after Fire captain Jodie Fields won the toss and elected to bat in overcast conditions. After losing two early wickets, Fields (39) and Lyndall Daley helped build the ...  

Dinesh Ramdin, the replacement captain of West Indies, faces the task of outwitting his Australian counterpart Ricky Ponting with a team of under-rated, under-achieving players. He has already set about analysing Australia's Ashes defeat for any advantage on offer, and his maturity indicates that he may be a future leader of some substance. "He's a world-class player, I can't say I'm close to his standards. He has a team that ever since he took up the leadership, he's had a good bunch of guys who are experienced. They just keep winning," he said.

To get the support of the guys on the field and off the field as well, the way the players come to you and ask for advice, a lot of the senior players in the team look up to me as a player who knows a lot about the game   -Dinesh Ramdin

 

A Congress MP from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh, Azharuddin is serving a life ban from the BCCI for his involvement in the match-fixing scandal that rocked Indian cricket in 2000. Ajay Sharma , another former cricketer, was also handed a life ban while Ajay Jadeja and Manoj Prabhakar were given five-year bans by the Indian cricket board. The BCCI had blacklisted Azharuddin through a unanimous resolution nine years ago.

I spoke to BCCI President Shashank Manohar, and he said that if Azhar himself shows interest in wanting the ban to be lifted then it can be moved forward to the Annual General Meeting and then the AGM will have to decide   -Rajiv Shukla

 

Former opener Matthew Hayden claims that the future of Test cricket would only depend on its quality and has suggested a World Series with Australia and England in one group while India and Pakistan in the other to protect their 'iconic' series. Hayden said revamping the FTP should be the starting point for ensuring Test cricket regains its elite standing which would also require the ICC to discontinue the meaningless cricket. The former Australian opener has compiled a detailed dossier titled ...

There are two Test series which can be considered iconic, and this should form the starting point for the creation of a meaningful international Test series. These series are the Ashes and India v Pakistan   -Matthew Hayden

 

A fit-again Michael Clarke, who recently returned to the Australian cricket team as vice-captain, wants to lead the side in future but only if incumbent Ricky Ponting decides to walk away on his own. Clarke, who missed the Champions Trophy earlier this year and Australia's seven-match ODI tour to India due to a back injury, returned to the 12 member Aussie squad for the first Test against West Indies in Brisbane starting November 26. The 28-year-old right-hander said at the moment he was happy ...

I could sit here and lie and say I don't think about it. The truth is I hope I continue to get opportunities, whether it be one-day cricket, now with Twenty20 cricket or hopefully one day I get the chance to captain in Test cricket   -Michael Clarke

 

further make the survival of Test cricket difficult. The first Test between India and Sri Lanka, which ended in a draw yesterday, produced 1598 runs and only 21 wickets fell in the five days. Ganguly said the result and the track at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium, Motera has hardly done anything good in the time when questions are being raised over the survival of Tests while ODIs and Twenty20 cricket have taken over the popularity.  

PCB COO Wasim Bari has said that the board has not received any invite from the IPL organizers. "As far as I am concerned not a single player, who is interested in the IPL gave me an invitation letter of the IPL. Though the PCB chairman Ejaz Butt has already been in contact with the government to seek guidelines on this issue, whether to allow the players to play in the IPL or not, an invitation from the IPL is nevertheless mandatory," Bari told Dawn. "I only want an invitation letter from the ...

As far as I am concerned not a single player, who is interested in the IPL gave me an invitation letter of the IPL. Though the PCB chairman Ejaz Butt has already been in contact with the government to seek guidelines on this issue, whether to allow the players to play in the IPL or not, an invitation from the IPL is nevertheless mandatory   -Wasim Bari